Feb172011

The following story was written and reported by Ernestine Chasing Hawk.

Oglala
Sioux Tribal President John Yellow Bird Steele and U.S. House Rep. Kristi Noem
(R-South Dakota).

RAPID CITY, SOUTH DAKOTA — Shortly after winning her bid for South Dakota’s
lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kristi Noem (R-SD) pledged to
meet with tribal leaders.

“We
are going to immediately set up opportunities for me to sit down and visit with
tribal leaders and the elders to discuss their specific concerns,” Noem said in
November.

Just
one month after her inauguration into office, South Dakota’s newest
Congressional leader seized that opportunity when the Great Plains Tribal
Chairmen’s Association was meeting with Great Plains Region Bureau of Indian
Affairs officers at the Ramkota Hotel in Rapid City.

In
a room filled with some of the most influential tribal leaders on the Northern
Plains, including former National Congress of American Indians President and
current Chairmen of the Three Affiliated Tribes Tex Hall, Noem was initiated
into the world of Indian policy.

After
being appointed to the Natural Resources Committee and the Subcommittee on
Indian and Alaska Native Affairs Noem said on her Congressional Website, “These
subcommittees will provide a great platform to fight for South Dakota
priorities in Washington. I am particularly eager to serve on the Indian Affairs
subcommittee to highlight our successes, as well as the needs we still have, on
South Dakota’s nine reservations.”

“It
is my hope that these assignments will translate into a robust hearing schedule
– including some field hearings in South Dakota,' Noem said. "Through
these committees I hope we can pursue an aggressive oversight plan to rein in
excessive spending and expose dysfunctional government bureaucracies impacting
our land, our energy and our education system.”

At
the meeting in Rapid City, Noem told tribal leaders she sees serving on those
committees as a real opportunity for progress.

“So
hopefully we will have a good transition and make some real progress working
with the House and our Senators on the other side of the hill as well, making
sure that we address a lot of your concerns,” she said and thanked the tribal
leaders for meeting with her.

She
encouraged them to voice their concerns and said she had “studied” about their
struggles during her years in the S.D. State Legislature and gained some basic
knowledge.

“I
am a firm believer that what people see with their eyes and they hear with
their ears in person, they tend to put it to their heart,” she said. “It’s a
lot different to read something from a distance than it is to hear it from the
people that are impacted. That’s why for me, I feel very blessed that you’ve
come today to share your information with me.”

President
of the Oglala Sioux Tribe John Yellow Bird Steele reminded Noem that most of
the tribes on the Northern Plains exist because of treaties made with the
United States Government.

“We
need to go back to the constitution of the United States Government Article VI
‘Treaties are the Supreme Law of the Land.’ I have drafted an Executive Order
for Obama to sign to reaffirm our treaties to reinforce those treaty councils,”
Yellow Bird Steele said and asked the new congresswoman for help in getting it
signed.

“Are
all the tribes in agreement on having that Executive Order signed?” she asked.

Steele
said he attended a meeting in Bismarck of the National Indian Health Board who
are implementing the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

“Right
now they have a formula that benefits the smaller tribes more than larger
tribes which are mostly in South Dakota, land based tribes. We need some
political support somehow to affect, possibly change that whole Indian Health
Care Improvement Act,” he said.

“It
was passed with Obama’s signature and I personally feel it is not good for our
tribes in the loss of funds. It was illegally done by national Indian
organizations which do not represent the Oglala Sioux Tribe. Yellow Bird Steele
said and asked Noem if she could help “straighten that out.”

Noem
said she believed that attaching the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to the
Health Care Bill “was extremely unfortunate.”

“Because
I think that it is quality legislation that should have stood on its own and
passed on its own according to what would have benefited the tribes,” she said.

Noem
recapped the recent House vote to repeal the Health Care Reform Bill and said
depending on what happens in the Senate, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
will probably pass through separate legislation “because we recognize the
importance of getting that act passed.”

“We
do want to make sure it is correct. This is the first time that I’ve heard that
possibly the formula may need to be talked about and discussed,” she added.

Other
tribal leaders voiced concerns that the IHCIA disproportionately helps Urban
Indian Health Centers who are given the same level of recognition as
reservation Indian Health Services.

“In
the old Indian Health Care Improvement Act under Section 2, Urban Indian Health
Care Centers had their own appropriations, their own money. In this new one
they are allowed to compete for all of our health care monies,” Yellow Bird
Steele said and that states rather than the federal government are determining
what is or isn’t an Urban Indian Health Care Center.

Hall
said he had three concerns -- budgets, roads and the Cobell settlement -- to
share with the new congresswoman.

“There
are 12 regions in the United States. We are all here for the budget formulation
of the Bureau of Indian Affairs 2013 budget. We are very concerned. We’re the
largest land based tribes; we have the most trust transactions, the most
allotments,” Hall said.

He
said tribes in California who many have only five percent of trust transactions
have the same number of reality officers as Great Plains tribes, who have 40
percent of trust transactions.

The
Cobell settlement includes $1.9 billion to buy up fractionated land interests
and Hall expressed concern that the Great Plains Region of the BIA will not
have enough staffing to administer the program because other regions are going
“to pull these budgets from us.”

“And
at the end of the day we will still end up having the dubious honor of being
number one for fractionated lands because we aren’t set up for it. Cobell is
like the stimulus dollars, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity but I am just
fearful that we are not set up to handle it,” Hall said.